10 Android TV Box Apps That Are So Nifty They Are Actually Illegal

April 05 18:08 2015 by Adler Moris

 If you’re on the hunt for nifty apps to install on your Android TV box, chances are you may be considering other sources than the official Google Play Store. The question, however, is whether the programs you’re setting up on your smart TV kit could you get you in hot water if the wrong kind of people find out.

Here are some of the more notable examples of apps that either blur the lines between legal and illegal or are outright blocked from the Play Store:

1. Emulators – apps like NESoid, Snes9x and PSx4Droid allow you to play old Nintendo and Sony games on a capable Android TV box. Emulators and the ROMs used to load the games are on the darker shade of gray when it comes to copyright laws, so Google outright banned these from the official Play Store.

2. YouTube Downloaders – TubeMate and similar apps are great for downloading YouTube videos for offline viewing. The problem is that YouTube doesn’t want people downloading their videos. Google owns YouTube, so you can guess how these downloaders were kicked out of the Play Store.

3. Third-Party App Stores – or specifically, the Amazon App Store. There really are no legal problems with the store, but Google doesn’t want to promote their competitors on their own app distribution site. The Amazon App Store is actually worth downloading on your Android TV kit, especially since they offer occasional deals as well as daily freebies.

4. Ad-Blockers – many apps derive their income from advertisements, so it’s no small wonder that Google has blocked ad-blockers like Ad-Away from the official Google Play Store. You shouldn’t run into any legal problems if you install it on your Android TV box, though.

5. TV Scrapers – apps like Clippit and TV Portal allow you to watch TV from channels all over the world as long as you have Internet access. Many of these TV-scraping apps, however, infringe on copyright laws – meaning that you won’t find them on the official Google Play Store anytime soon.

6. Music Streaming Apps – some music-streaming apps like Grooveshark don’t actually get clear and concise permission from music labels to stream their music, which is why it gets booted from the Google Play Store so often. Fun fact: Grooveshark has been allowed and removed from the Store for multiple times because of how its developers tread that fine gray line in copyright laws.

7. Spying Apps – apps like Secret SMS Replicator run afoul of many privacy laws, which is why you won’t find them on the Google Play Store. Granted, the aforementioned app won’t work for Android TV boxes, but there are plenty other spying apps out there that can record activity on your Android TV device.

8. Fake Caller ID Apps – SpoofApp allowed callers to fake their caller IDs as well as their voices when making a call. The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009, however, meant that this app was not only banned from the Play Store but could actually get you in legal trouble if you are found using it to mask your caller ID. Not an issue for your average Internet TV box since you aren’t using a telephone to make a call.

9. Apps that Promote Harm or Illegal Behavior – Weed Farmer, Nose Candy, KG Dogfighting, Serial Killer Quote of the Day – these are just a handful of the many apps out there that promotes harm or behavior that is contrary to many state laws. They might be simple parodies making fun of one thing or another, but Google would rather play it safe by banning them on the store.

10. Explicit and Suggestive Apps – you can install apps like Wank-o-Meter and Pocket Girlfriend on your Android TV device, but you won’t find them on the Google Play Store since it only deals with ‘safe’ PG-13 content.

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